Amiri Baraka | Howard Taubman

Howard Taubman

SOURCE: "'Slave' and 'Toilet' by LeRoi Jones Open," in The New York Times, December 17, 1964, p.51.

In the following excerpt, Taubman calls Jones an angry and gifted playwright.

LeRoi Jones is one of the angriest writers to storm the theater—and one of the most gifted. On the evidence of his new one-acters, "The Slave" and "The Toilet," one wonders whether his rage is not at war with his instincts as an artist.

In both halves of the double bill, which opened last night at the St. Marks Playhouse, Mr. Jones has exciting and moving things to say. Once again, as in "Dutchman," he discloses a sure grasp of the theatrical image.

But he cannot resist the urge to shock by invoking violence and all the obscenities he can think of. There are times when these shock tactics perform no useful dramatic function, when they clarify...